News

Lausanne, Switzerland, September 20, 2018 - The events on the 2018-2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball Calendar were confirmed as the World Tour Council met in Lausanne on Tuesday. Featuring an increase in the number of 3, 4 and 5-star events, the 2018-2019 season is set to be the biggest yet with 19 brand new host cities and five new host countries taking the total prize money for the competition up to almost $8 million (World Championships and World Tour Finals excluded).

When compared with 2017/2018, the prize money for the new season has increased by 27.3% and almost doubled since 2016/2017. The total number of stops has also increased to 52, including a total of 87 events for both genders.

“The FIVB World Tour continues to go from strength to strength, and it is wonderful to see emerging markets play a significant role in the success of beach volleyball,” said FIVB President Dr Ary S. Graça F°.

“Our sport is one that is extremely competitive but built on respect. We want to be the number one family sport in the world, and encourage people of all ages, genders and backgrounds to play. The numbers support our actions and I hope this will continue throughout the next season and beyond.”

Highlights of the 2018-2019 calendar include three 5-star Beach Major Series events in Fort Lauderdale (USA), Gstaad (Switzerland) and Vienna (Austria), as well as a 5-star event in Rome (Italy) TBC. There will also be as many as fourteen 4-star events, eight 3-star events, seven 2-star events, and nineteen 1-star events across all five continents. The year’s signature event will be the 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Hamburg, Germany from June 28-July 7, while the 2019 FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championships will take place on Samila Beach in Songkhla, Thailand from June 19-23.

The FIVB New Events Business department is responsible for establishing the calendar and is currently in negotiations with several promoters to maintain the World Tour Finals in the calendar at the end of the season (August/September). The FIVB New Events Business department and the Chinese Volleyball Association (CVA) are also finalising the date and location of the 2019 World Olympic Qualification tournament, which will take place in China. This new qualification event will include the top 15 teams (with one team per national federation) plus the host country team from China and will determine two vacancies per gender for the beach volleyball tournaments at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Several 1 and 2-star events are also expected to be added to the calendar during the season especially in the CEV territory. The FIVB is also negotiating an additional 4-star event in China which was announced by the CVA during the World Tour Council meeting, as well as several 3-star events in other countries.

As well as an increase in the number of events, participants and prize money, the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour continues to attract a wide range of host cities for its events. The number of participating national federations has also expanded rapidly in the last five years, from 39 countries in 2013, to 66 in 2018 and, as a leader of equal opportunities for men and women in sport, the FIVB has seen the number of elite female athletes competing in its competitions grow by more than double, from 787 in 2013 to 1,675 last season.

During the World Tour Council meeting it was also decided to bring forward the event bidding deadline for the 2019/2020 season (to April 2019) and finalising the competition regulations. Additional operational tools were also provided to the event organizers.

Following presentations in the morning, the FIVB World Tour Council meeting continued with two separate workshops; one for organisers of 1 and 2-star events, and the other for 3, 4 and 5-star events. There were also presentations on the upcoming 2019 and 2021 World Championships, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and exciting new opportunities in snow volleyball, the first inaugural season of which will begin in January 2019.